Stanley Cup Obstacles For The Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers have signed three players to PTOs – Brandon Sutter, Brent Sutter’s son who has been out of the NHL the past two seasons recovering from long-term Covid, two-time ex Oilers forward Sam Gagner, and defensive specialist Adam Erne, who most recently played for Detroit for the last four seasons.

Many are excited about being “gaga for Gagner” as they love the retro feels but it’s important to remember that Gagner is not the same player he once was at 34 – and even in his prime he wasn’t exactly a speed demon.

We recently learned that Gagner won’t be healthy enough to play any preseason games, only practice with the team due to his healing from the double hip surgery he had being longer than anticipated. The Oilers may sign him to a two-way contract, send him down to Bakersfield, and call him up as his health improves and he’s needed.

Sutter and Erne are largely unknown commodities at this point and things could go either way for them.

Other Edmonton Oilers related news

• It looks like old Oilers Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli will be returning to Ottawa where his management career started. He has close ties to new Sens majority owner Michael Andlauer, but don’t count on him becoming Sens GM anytime soon as Pierre Dorion has this team on the upswing and on the cusp of emerging from a rebuild. You’d have to think long and hard about unjustly firing a guy like that – especially when you have a guy whose most recent NHL job was as checkered as Chiarelli’s was.
• Although Brown’s health is miles better than Gagner’s, it appears Connor Brown will not be playing consecutive games in the preseason as a precaution against the ACL surgery he had in Washington last season.
• In the past, for cap reasons, I’ve written about how it might be time for the Oilers to turn the bottom pairing left D spot over to Philip Broberg full-time, but there are rumblings now that Broberg isn’t developing as quickly as the Oilers want him to which is resulting in rumblings that the Oilers will be trading Broberg rather than Brett Kulak, even though Kulak would net the Oilers much more cap space if only one of those players can be Oilers this upcoming season. IMO this would be giving up on a good young player too soon, but ultimately at some point push comes to shove and you have to do what’s best for the team. Number games get played all the time in the NHL and one player has to win and one player has to lose. I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that in terms of Broberg, but I would certainly understand and not begrudge Ken Holland for pulling the trigger on a trade for the player.